House of Cards
by Lianne Everdeen
Summary: He was a rainstorm and I was a house of cards.
1. Chapter 1

**This is based off the first line from the Taylor Swift song "Sparks Fly," which reminds me somewhat of Percabeth. **

_**The way you move is like a full-on rainstorm / and I'm a house of cards.**_

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><p>I liked to make card houses when I was little.<p>

I would sit there, alone in my room, my too-easy first grade homework already done, and build elaborate houses out of cards while I waited for my dad to come home.

I kept the door shut because I wanted to keep my stepmother out.

After the masterpiece was complete and I had admired it for a few minutes with my six-year-old eyes, I poked a card towards the bottom and the entire structure collapsed, sending cards all over the floor.

It was the beginning of my obsession with architecture.

Sometimes, after I ran away, I felt like I was a house of cards, the ever-present tension in my body keeping me together. Keeping the glossy little rectangles of stiff paper with rounded edges from slipping and falling apart. Certain things – like Luke carrying me piggyback when I got tired, or Thalia holding my hand like the surrogate big sister she was to me, helped keep my cards from tumbling down.

Then Thalia got turned into a tree. Cards slipped and I slowly rebuilt myself.

Later, in my cabin at Camp Half-Blood, I would sit cross-legged on my bunk with a sketchbook and pencil from Chiron – creamy white paper and sharp graphite – and sketch pictures of houses.

_Annabeth Chase. _9-year-old handwriting.

Luke and I grew apart.

I fell for him hard, though. An eleven-year-old girl's feelings for a boy already eighteen. Tall and handsome.

When _he _came, I was twelve. Already I'd carried too much weight for my years, Chiron had said, and I still felt like a house of cards sometimes.

He made my card house self feel like falling apart, every so often. He was so infuriating. Green eyes, black hair. Such a seaweed brain.

We became best friends anyways. How could we not? We had defeated monsters together. He had my back. I had his. Crazy as it was, I trusted him. I hoped he trusted me.

Luke betrayed me. Thalia came back.

Cards slipped again and Percy helped me rebuild myself without even knowing. He made me smile. I still got frustrated with him, though.

Then things changed. Slowly but surely.

Looking into those green eyes sometimes made me feel like a soft breeze was fluttering my house of cards. Sometimes it made me think of the gentle, deceiving breeze before a rainstorm.

He was a rainstorm and I was a house of cards.

We held the sky. He had looked everywhere for me.

By the next summer the sight of his green eyes and crooked smile made my heart race and I was so happy whenever I was by his side. I wanted nothing more than to kiss him.

And I finally did, inside a mountain, heat all around us and heat inside of me and I felt like my house of cards might fall apart again but this time it would be like melting.

A few days later, my house of cards did fall apart. But not melting. It fell apart drowning in tears.

It lay there on the floor until the moment I saw him, alive and well, and as I held on tight, as if for dear life, my house of cards rebuilt itself within a minute.

He was back.

Then jealousy set in.

The war.

I thought nothing of getting wounded to save him.

His "Achilles heel". When I touched it, sparks shot through me, but my cards didn't catch fire.

Blue birthday cake. A kiss in a lake.

Dreams come true.

Happiness.

The rainstorm had come and it was the best rainstorm ever. My house of cards threatened to fall apart every time he kissed me, but it was a good falling apart. Like I was melting inside. It was like falling apart and being made whole at the same time.

He was my rainstorm and I was a house of cards.

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed it! Another one focusing on their relationship throughout the Heroes of Olympus series coming soon.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**So this just covers The Lost Hero and the beginning of The Mark of Athena. There will be one more chapter, I think...**

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><p>He was my rainstorm and I was a house of cards.<p>

Everything was perfect.

We walked in the strawberry fields and watched the fireworks together, went on real dates in New York city. He went all the way to his father's palace just to bring me a piece of coral, which is strung on my necklace. He even persuaded Hermes to take us to Paris, after a quest.

I sketched real houses, palaces, mansions, temples, designed floor plans and marble pillars. I was so honored. He kept my fatal flaw from taking over, and let his own show in his loyalty to me. He would watch me as I worked and I got distracted by those sea-green eyes and messy hair I was always wanting to smooth down.

_Stop making me want to kiss you, I'm trying to finish an archway._

He just smirked.

Those months were pure bliss.

I thought they would just go on forever.

How wrong I was.

Gods of Olympus, I was _so _wrong.

I'll never forget. It was a Wednesday morning in December, and when I first couldn't find him in his cabin, it wasn't a big deal. An hour later, I realized I should be worried. By late afternoon, my house of cards was teetering, slipping, on the verge of collapse. I was exhausted, my mind worn, all the excitement of being with him for winter break drained out of me.

All night I couldn't sleep. And the next morning, when he was officially declared missing, my house of cards fell down.

Scattered. Collapsed. And this time, worse than ever.

It was like a part of me was missing.

I tried to rebuild it on my own. And the new heroes gave me hope. But every time I tried to piece it together, I never got very far.

I didn't realize how much a part of me he was until he was gone.

At least I knew where he was now.

I lost so much sleep. My marks fell back in school. All I could think about was the ship being built to carry us to the camp. To carry us to where he was. To carry _me _to _him. _But of course, the quest was more important, I reminded myself.

It didn't matter that I didn't care about working on Olympus now, because the gods had cut off connection anyways.

Those months were pure agony. It seemed like they would just go on forever.

And then.

June.

The encounter with my mother had made things worse, but nothing could quell the nervous anticipation churning inside me as we sailed across the country. I had managed to keep a few cards steady enough to keep myself going, but it wasn't enough.

The words thrummed in my mind. Over and over.

_I'm going to see him. I'm going to see him._

When at last I laid my eyes on him, in that crowd of Romans, he was all I saw. He looked different: taller, stronger, more handsome. Those green eyes, that dark hair. My heart did a double-flip and then I was running, running, running.

I felt his arms around me for the first time in what seemed like eons, and then we were kissing, and nothing else mattered. I couldn't see, hear, or feel anything but _him._

He was my rainstorm and I was a house of cards, and becaus_e _that seaweed brain was _mine, _I could do it. I could flip him over my shoulder and challenge him, because gods, those emotions when we were apart had been too much to handle, and _if he ever left me again..._

Of course, he just laughed. _I missed you too. _

And just like that, the cards slid back into place. Shaky, still, but they would grow stronger, I was confident of that. Because I had him back.


End file.
